Follow our adventures through child rearing, life in Redmond, home construction and whatever else we manage to get up to.

Menu

20/20 lifestyles

It has been almost exactly 9 months since I first started 20/20. The first six months I was active in the program and the last three months I have been on my own.

I started 270 days ago weighing 214 pounds and currently fluctuate between 155 & 158. I’ve largely maintained that range for the last three months. Through multiple trips and multiple holidays. Feeling pretty proud of that.

I go to the gym twice a week with the same personal trainer I had throughout the program. I also try to get as many steps in as possible at work since it’s dark by the time I get home. I can usually do most of my 1:1’s walking when the weather holds up and on those days I’m getting around 20k steps. Otherwise I’m doing no additional exercise.

I stopped tracking food after the program ended but use the intuition on calories and macro-nutrients that I built up during the program to try to stick to plan. Every morning that I’m home I have a protein shake and almost every week I make a batch of chili for lunch during the week. And I make fruit and vegetable snacks plus a protein bar for my 3pm snack. That takes care of about 2/3 of my calories and the rest is dinner.

I’ve found managing portion size and staying away from large meals at restaurants, plus never eating from the package has basically been sufficient to maintain my current weight.

I’m so glad I started this last spring when work was a little slower, now that I am managing a large team again having the extra energy is really helpful and I don’t think I could have as easily found the time to do 20/20.

I am halfway through phase 2 of the 20/20 program, which is 12 weeks in total. We did a full set of measurements at the halfway mark. My weight is at 163 down from 214 at the start of the program, for a total loss of 51 pounds. Here is a summary of other measurements:

I have six weeks left in phase 2 and then will be on my own. I likely will continue to go to the gym with a personal trainer twice a week and work hard to stick to the core diet I have been on.

At the end of phase 2 I will do a body fat index scan and another full set of measurements.

I hadn’t had a dietician appointment for nearly three weeks and so haven’t had an official weigh-in in three weeks. After having been away from home for 7 days at a horse show in Tulsa, OK I was pretty sure I would have gained a few pounds.

Instead I had lost an additional 7 lbs since my last weigh-in. So I was pretty happy about that. It was really hard to stay on schedule and diet while away. I also didn’t get in any real workouts and struggled to get 10k steps most days. I guess the heat helped.

I’ve official been in phase two for almost three weeks, so about 9 weeks left. I will use this time to lose a bit more fat and tune my diet and workout schedule to maintain this weight.

Today was also my first workout back since being away so was super tired. But managed to get a personal record on the 1,500 meter row.

Zoe has been away most of the summer and I think has only spent about six days home all break. So it is nice to have everyone back at home for the next two weeks before school starts.

Zoe was at back to back shows in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. OKC was her first trip to Youth Worlds where she had a number of great rides in very deep and competitive classes. She got a fourth in Western Pleasure, a seventh in Trail and didn’t place in Western Riding.

Last week we were in Tulsa at the NSBA Worlds where she was fourth Western Riding, a sixth in Western Pleasure and didn’t place in Trail. All the classes were deep and competitive, much more so then last year.

We also got to meet our first baby out of our breeding program. Her name is Ruthie and she was in the yearling auction but failed to sell. So we will send her to a new facility in OKC where they will start her training in December. Zoe is excited she didn’t sell and looking forward to getting to ride her in the futurities next summer. We will have to see about that.

I just completed the final doctors visit marking the end of Phase 1. Approximately 4 months ago I made the decision that I wanted to be healthier. I wanted to eliminate as many negative factors as I could in ensuring that I live a long and healthy life. Today marks the completion of the first phase of that transformation. It has been an incredible journey.

First I want to thank my family (especially Chris) who have been incredibly supportive and motivating through-out. I also want to encourage anyone (especially anyone at Microsoft) that wants to do something similar to attend one of the 20/20 Lifestyles Seminars at ProClub. This is an incredible program.

At the beginning of the program, I had blood tests for Cholesterol, glucose, resting metabolic rate and a ton of measurements. And last week I had a similar set of tests and measurements done for comparison. I’ve shared some interim results at 10 weeks, but here is a recap of all of those numbers.

As you can see almost every number substantially increased in a positive direction. Almost every number that was at a dangerous level is now at a normal level or at least very close.

I’m not done. I still want to lose more body fat. My target is to get close to 15%, which will require me to lose approximately 15 more pounds. This should take approximately 6 weeks. My phase 2 will be 12 weeks, so I should have plenty of time to reach my target weight and start working on maintenance.

This program isn’t intended to be a diet. And they stress that a lot. It is intended to be a lifestyle change. So not only am I not done now, but I will never be ‘done’. The real challenge is going to be sticking to healthy/conscious eating, regular exercise and an active lifestyle for the rest of my life.

I feel great. And if I do say so myself I look great. So that will be a great motivator to keep at it.

I have now completed the first 16 weeks of the program and officially start phase 2 next week. Originally I had hoped to be at my target weight of 170 lbs by this point and then use phase 2 to work on stabilization, however, I will continue to stick to phase 1 workout (3 x per week) and phase 1 diet for a few more weeks.

I have my final assessment, blood work, and doctors appointment next week. They will do a full cholesterol screen and body fat scan, and from there we will determine ideal body weight. So I won’t know for a bit how much longer I will stay on current exercise and diet, but at a fairly constant rate of 2.5 lbs loss per week, I’m expected about 4 more weeks to get to around 165 lbs.

I also did final body measurements today and over the first 16 weeks, I’ve lost a total of 23.75 inches from neck, chest, waist, hips, biceps, and thighs. I think the most noticeable and impactful is losing 9 inches from my waist. This has meant that all of my pants, shorts and bathing suits no longer fit me and I had to buy new ones.

Here is a picture of the new swimsuit and the old swimsuit for comparison. I will do another update following the medical appointment next week and can share overall changes in blood pressure, cholesterol, and body fat percentages.

Had my official weigh-in today and a workout with my personal trainer. So far in the first 14 weeks of the program I’ve lost a total of 35 lbs. All of the numbers don’t quite add up so don’t do the math yourself. I was down 2.4 lbs this week.

I have 2 weeks left in phase one of the program and if weight loss stays on track I will have lost 40 lbs in 16 weeks. Roughly 2.5 lbs a week. My target weight likely will require a bit more weight loss following phase one. I had originally hoped to get down to my target weight during phase one. But I suspect I will need 3 – 4 more weeks to get closer to 165.

Following phase one I will move to 2 workouts a week, but will likely delay that change until I hit my ideal weight. At my dietician appointment last week we added back beans and this week we added back starchy vegetables.

I made turkey chili in the instapot which turned out really good and I had it for lunch all week. Will try a beef version next week and hopefully Chris and Zoe will like it.

Haven’t updated in a few weeks so have a bunch of things to cover. I was in Vancouver over the weekend getting my hair done.

Last summer I wanted to do something different and always wanted to try blue hair. Worked out well, so I figured I would make it a tradition.

After Vancouver, I flew to Las Vegas to participate in the World Series of Poker for the first time with a good friend from work. We both played in the $1,500 no-limit texas hold ’em event starting on Monday, it was supposed to be a three-day event, but we both got knocked out the first day. So instead I played in eight single table tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $125 to $275. Here is how I did:

$125 – chopped with two people ($360)
$125 – didn’t finish in the money
$175 – chopped with one person ($1,000)
$175 – didn’t finish in the money
$275 – chopped with one person ($1,230)
$125 – chopped with one person ($600)
$125 – didn’t finish in the money

So total I cashed in 50% of the single table tournaments. Total buy-in was $1,125 and I ended up winning $3,190 for a net profit of $2,065. The big tournament was an additional $1,500 and I lost a last longer bet with Scott for an additional $100. So total for the week I was up $465, minus hotel and airfare. So not too bad. If I was to go back I think I would just play in the single table tournaments.

On the 20/20 front, I have new measurements from two weeks ago (week 10) and a new weigh-in this week with my dietician.

So total I have lost 19″. I had planned on only buying new clothes after I had reached my target weight, but almost none of my pants, shorts or bathing suits fit me anymore, so I had to break down and buy a few pairs of shorts and pants. I was wearing size 37/38 pants before I started and ended up buying one pair of 34 and one pair of 32 jeans and shorts. The 32 are a bit tight and the 34s are a bit loose, but I’m thinking the 32s should fit pretty good by the time I’m done.

My blood pressure when I started the program was 135 over 71 and is now 110 over 50. And I have lost a total of 32.8 lbs, 5.2 lbs in the last two weeks. I’m still tracking slightly above my targeted weight loss per week and on an aggregate basis. I have four weeks left in phase one and I hope to lose approximately another 10 lbs which will get me very close to my target weight. Then I will use the 10 weeks of phase two in order to figure out how to maintain that weight over the long term.

The garden seems to be coming along fairly slowly. Only a few of the plants have sprouted leaves and it looks like a deer walked through it and crushed some of the plants. Good news is I remember that we have two large huckleberry bushes in the backyard so I picked a bowl of huckleberries last night.

Chris, Zoe, and Ainsley are in Palm Desert for Zoe’s horseback training until Sunday and then Chris and Ainsley will fly home, and Zoe will stay on in Palm Desert and drive with Mark and Keith to Las Vegas for the EMO/Celebration Circuit show next week. Chris will meet her there and I have Ainsley at home all next week.

Hannah, our Au Pair, finished her year here this week and is traveling around the US with her friend Sarina for the next month and then will fly home to Germany. I can’t believe that it has already been a year, seems to have gone by even fast than normal. Next month Melanie will arrive on July 12th from Germany and we will start the process again.

In August Zoe has two big shows, the first is the AQHA Youth Worlds Show in Oklahoma City, this will be her first time attending the Youth Worlds Show and she is super excited. Then she will go to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the NSBA Worlds Show with Ainsley, Melanie and I.